Uno, Dos, Tres.....

If there is one tradition Cuban-Americans have stuck with through the ages, it is eating 12 grapes on New Year’s Eve. Twelve grapes at the stroke of midnight. For good luck, of course.

Waiting for midnight

The story I always heard as a child is that the tradition started in Spain and quickly spread to Portugal, and then Spanish and Portuguese colonies. You eat one at each stroke of midnight, trying your best to eat all the grapes by the sound of the last bell. Each grape represents a different month, with the associated taste. If for instance your third grape is particularly sweet, you can expect a joyful month of March. On the other hand if you eat a sour grape at the sixth stroke, June might bring you bad luck.

I remember the year I forgot to buy grapes until the last minute on a cold, rainy New Year’s Eve. All out at the Safeway, and I was relegated to raisins instead. On the up side, they were all sweet. But I don’t remember if it was a very good year.

I long ago stopped staying up until midnight on New Year’s Eve, but we do all eat 12 grapes together before the little one is ready for bed.

¡Te deseo un feliz y próspero año nuevo!

On Condition of Release

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is in the news again. He has been under pressure from the national and Mississippi NAACP to grant early releases to Jamie and Gladys Scott, two sisters serving unusually long prison sentences for armed robbery. This week he did it.  Their sentences will be suspended. However, there is a twist to this story:  Jamie Scott, 38 requires regular dialysis. In a statement, the governor said Glady’s release is “conditional” on her donating a kidney to her sister.  No get-out-of-jail-free card, here.

By all accounts, the incarceration terms for these young, African-American women from Mississippi were particularly harsh. They have each already served 16 years of a life sentence. From the Washington Post:

The sisters were convicted of luring two men into an armed robbery that netted $11. Their three teenage accomplices, who hit each man in the head with a shotgun and took their wallets, have served their sentences and been released.

The national and Mississippi NAACP had been working for much of the year to win the release of the Scotts, who would have come up for parole in 2014. Barbour, who is weighing a run for president, announced his decision a week after he ran afoul of civil rights advocates.

The NAACP is happy:

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, who met with Barbour about the sisters' case, said the governor's office has made it clear Gladys Scott will not go back to prison if her kidney is not a match. Both sisters will follow traditional parole release procedures.

"This is a shining example of how governors should use their commutation powers," he said.

Medical ethicists, not so happy:

Dr Michael Shapiro, the chief of organ transplants at Hackensack University medical centre in New Jersey and chair of the ethics committee at the united network for organ sharing, said the organ transplant should not be a condition of release.

"The simple answer to that is you can't pay someone for a kidney," Shapiro said. "If the governor is trading someone 20 years for a kidney, that might potentially violate the valuable consideration clause."

The valuable consideration clause is meant to prohibit the buying or selling of organs. Shapiro said the Scott sisters' situation could violate that rule because it could be construed as trading a thing of value – freedom from prison – for an organ.

And then again, this might be all about the bottom line.

Jamie Scott's kidney dialysis treatment creates a substantial cost to the state, said Barbour.

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher B. Epps, who agreed with the decision to suspend the sentences, said Jamie Scott's three-times-a-week dialysis costs the state about $190,000 a year.

The operation would be covered by Medicaid, with federal government dollars. And the sisters plan on living in Florida after release, so any additional medical care will not be on the back of Mississippi tax payers.

Somehow, I do believe that on an intellectual level Gov. Barbour thinks these women should be set free.  But, he is somehow unable to do it without condition.  And given the ethical (and perhaps legal) considerations, this story is not going to go away.  Can't wait to hear how Gov. Barbour's handlers unpack this one.  Much, much spinning to be done.  Following this story, and others that come out of the Mississippi Statehouse in the coming year should be very intriguing.

RIP, Rosie the Riveter

USPS Postal Stamp,1999

Geraldine Doyle, also known as “Rosie the Riveter” died this week. Seemingly, a myth continually in the making. Never mind that her name was not Rosie, that she was not a riveter, and that she lasted barely two weeks at her factory job – she made a lasting impact on American culture.

From The Washington Post:

Geraldine Doyle, 86, who as a 17-year-old factory worker became the inspiration for a popular World War II recruitment poster that evoked female power and independence under the slogan "We Can Do It!," died Dec. 26 at a hospice in Lansing, Mich.

Her daughter, Stephanie Gregg, said the cause of death was complications from severe arthritis.

For millions of Americans throughout the decades since World War II, the stunning brunette in the red and white polka-dot bandanna was Rosie the Riveter.

Rosie's rolled-up sleeves and flexed right arm came to represent the newfound strength of the 18 million women who worked during the war and later made her a figure of the feminist movement.

And a bit more history:

In the early 1940s, Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb composed the song "Rosie the Riveter."

Simple lyrics helped the tune become a rotation staple on radio stations coast-to-coast: "All day long whether rain or shine, she's part of the assembly line. She's making history, working for victory, Rosie the Riveter."

After the song had become popular, the May 29, 1943, edition of the Saturday Evening Post cover featured a Norman Rockwell illustration of a muscular, red-headed riveter with the name Rosie painted on her lunch pail.

The history of my (present-day) hometown, Richmond, California is integrally tied into the story of Rosie the Riveter. So much so, that it is home to the Rosie the Riveter Memorial: Honoring American Women’s Labor During WW II. The memorial is designed to commemorate the contributions of the estimated 18 million women who worked in WWII defense industries and allied services. Additionally, the City of Richmond and the National Park Service are presently collaborating to add a National Park Visitor Center and Museum to honor this piece of American history. And best of all, an oral history project has been underway since 1998 to document the stories of the “Rosies” through interviews, photography and collecting historical documents.

It’s hard to argue that Richmond is not the perfect place for this memorial. In January 1941, one of the biggest wartime shipping building operations on the West Coast – the Kaiser Shipyards, opened for operations. The City’s population went from 23,2600 to 93,700, with floods of new arrivals from economically depressed parts of the country. Go to any bar in Richmond, and you can still overhear guys – a very diverse lot – talking and exchanging stories about those days.

So if you are around, pay homage to Rosie the Riveter and all the women she represents! Pay a visit to the Memorial.

News From Havana

Good news from Cuba.

From The Associated Press:

Cuba's Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence against a Cuban-American who was the last person remaining on death row in the island nation, according to a veteran human rights activist.

Elizardo Sanchez, the head of the independent Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said the court sentenced Humberto Eladio Real to 30 years in prison instead. Sanchez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Real's parents informed him of the decision.

Hopefully 2011 will bring more good news to/from the island.

Ode to 2010

The way I feel about 2010.  The fix was in.

Enjoy the Spanish subtitles!

The Age of (Dis)Information

Glenn Greenwald’s piece yesterday on salon.com is worth a complete read. It comes on the heels of a debate he had on CNN with former Bush Homeland Security advisor Fran Townsend and CNN Anchor Jessica Yellin. The exchange has gotten a lot or press, as have his writings in the last few days.

Greenwald says:

The way it proceeded was quite instructive to me and I want to make four observations about the discussion:

He goes on to extrapolate on four very thoughtful points concerning what he learned from the exchange. I suspect these thoughts will be with him for a long time, and will help frame his discussions and writings in the weeks to come. It is very refreshing to read this type of reflection. If only more commentators had the confidence to do it. Very professional, informative and most of all, smart.  And results in better work.

I was most taken by his points related to the state of American journalism, and the political culture it represents:

2) From the start of the WikiLeaks controversy, the most striking aspect for me has been that the ones who are leading the crusade against the transparency brought about by WikiLeaks -- the ones most enraged about the leaks and the subversion of government secrecy -- have been . . . America's intrepid Watchdog journalists. What illustrates how warped our political and media culture is as potently as that? It just never seems to dawn on them -- even when you explain it -- that the transparency and undermining of the secrecy regime against which they are angrily railing is supposed to be . . . what they do.

What an astounding feat to train a nation's journalist class to despise above all else those who shine a light on what the most powerful factions do in the dark and who expose their corruption and deceit, and to have journalists -- of all people -- lead the way in calling for the head of anyone who exposes the secrets of the powerful. Most ruling classes -- from all eras and all cultures -- could only fantasize about having a journalist class that thinks that way, but most political leaders would have to dismiss that fantasy as too extreme, too implausible, to pursue. After all, how could you ever get journalists -- of all people -- to loathe those who bring about transparency and disclosure of secrets? But, with a few noble exceptions, that's exactly the journalist class we have.

Greenwald is on to something very important here. I would add that somewhere along the way, journalists traded in the power intrinsic to truth telling and embodied in the frameworks associated with the broadest access to information. They traded it in for the power only Beltway insiders care about having. Exactly when and how this happened, I don’t know. But this class of American journalists reminds me of corporate media consultants who sell their services of “controlling the message” as a necessary element of doing business. Equating power with the manipulating of facts, information and often – truth.

In the case of journalists, it is almost as if the transparency they see as a free-for-all, is for them actually a form of chaos they interpret as a loss of power. Almost as if the inability to control a message because there is just too much information out there to manipulate, represents a loss of professional power.

Warped. But as Glenn Greenwald reminds us, a lot to think about and learn from.

A NYC Weekend On $100

My most excellent Frijoles Rojos

From the NYT's Frugal Traveler column:

After debarking, we took the subway up to Times Square and headed over to Margon, a hidden lunch counter on 46th Street that serves Cuban specialties. We split a Cuban sandwich ($6) and pork chops with a huge mound of rice and beans ($9) (and the check) and added two Coronas for $2.50 each, which exhausted my alcohol budget. Lunch ended past 4, and Valeria took off for other (less frugal) engagements.

Cuban food is cheap and yummy!  Too bad there's not enough of it here on the West Coast.  Except at my house.

Time To Leave Home?

I have always known that the good people of Alaska were a pragmatic lot.

From Public Policy Polling:

We've polled Palin's favorability in ten states over the last couple months. In Alaska just 33% of voters have a favorable opinion of her to 58% with a negative one. The only place where fewer voters see her positively than her own home state is dark blue Massachusetts.

Democrats hate Palin in Alaska but they hate her everywhere so there's nothing newsworthy about that. What makes her home state numbers unusually bad is that Republicans see her favorably by only a 60/30 margin. In most places she's closer to 80% favorability within her own party. Also while independents don't like her anywhere their level of animosity in Alaska is unusually large- 65% unfavorable to only 25% with a favorable opinion.

Still, it’s a shame they are returning sitting Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski to Washington, DC when they could have had Scott McAdams, Mayor of Sitka. Interesting math on that November 2010 race, though:

It's not a coincidence that the 35% of the vote Joe Miller appears to have received in the Alaska Senate race is almost identical to the 33% who have a favorable opinion of Palin. Miller allowed himself to practically become a surrogate for Palin and while that was good for letting him pull off a primary victory by the slimmest of margins it was not so good for his prospects in the general election.

Well, at least Bristol Palin is getting out of town. If the rumors are correct, she just bought a foreclosed home for $172,000 in Arizona and might be planning on attending college there.

End-of-the-Year Thank You!

I am not a big fan of end-of-the-year retrospectives, but since I cannot go to sleep without watching MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, I was treated to a fairly good 2010 review.

Rachel Maddow and her staff are justifiably very proud of all the reporting they did this year to assist in bringing the real-life stories of the men and women personally touched by the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy into our living rooms. You can watch the portion of last night’s show dedicated to these fine folks who have sacrificed so much of themselves for their country here.

Lt. Margaret Witt

I was particularly touched by (again) seeing the interview with Lt. Margaret Witt, a 17 year Air Force Reserve officer who after being discharged under DADT sued the Air Force. As a nurse, she saved countless lives. In September 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton – a George W. Bush appointee – ruled that she should be reinstated to her unit. This ruling gave hope to so many others who had either already been discharged under the policy, or feared for their careers.

What was in part SO remarkable about the ruling, were the comments made from the bench by Judge Leighton. Hugely empowering words that gave voice to the personal battles endured by those directly affected by this discriminatory policy. And their friends, families and loved ones who suffered along with them.

After ruling that retired Major Margaret Witt, a lesbian Air Force Reserve officer, should be reinstated to her unit, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton on Friday made the following comments from the bench:

Major Witt, you and I are unlikely to see one another again, in this context, anyway. I'd like to make a couple of points before you go:

1) I hope you will request reinstatement with the Air Force Reserves and the 446th [her unit]. You will provide the best evidence that open service of gays and lesbians will have no adverse effect on cohesion, morale or readiness in this or perhaps any Air Force or military unit.

2) You have been and continue to be a central figure in a long-term, highly charged civil-rights movement. That role places extraordinary stresses on you, I know. Today, you have won a victory in that struggle, the depth and duration of which will be determined by other judicial officers and, hopefully soon, the political branches of government. You said something in the trial that resonated with me. You said the best thing to come out of all this turmoil is the reaction of your parents when you told them of your sexual orientation: their love and support for you.

Not withstanding the victory you obtained here today, for yourself and for others, I would submit to you that the best thing to come out of all this tumult is still that love and support you have received from your family. You are truly blessed as a family and I am sure they will see you through whatever obstacles and difficulties you may encounter along the road ahead.

Sometimes it's not just about politics, or the law, or simply what is right. Sometimes it is in large part about people's every day lives. And how wonderful. Lt. Witt is expected to re-enlist in 2011. She can return to going about the business of saving lives.  She can return to her own life.

Thank you, Lt. Margaret Witt!

Wild and Wacky Minnesota

Sen. Michele Bachmann?

From The Hill:

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-Minn.) record-breaking fundraising is fueling speculation she is eyeing a run for the Senate in 2012 against first-term Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.).

Bachmann spokesman Doug Sachtleben left the door open to a possible Senate run in a statement to The Hill. He said the congresswoman is focused on serving her constituents, but “nothing’s off the table for the future.”

I have enough faith in the good people of Minnesota to think this run would be a great way to get rid of Michelle Bachmann, or at least relegate her permanently to the conservative media airways -- which means we can have control over whether we ever see or hear her again. A recent PPP shows that while she is favored to win the Republican nomination, the sitting democrat, Senator Amy Klobuchar bests her 56 percent to 39 percent.

The Power of Words

One of the perks of being in charge again in the House of Representatives is that the Republicans get to change the names of standing committees. And as we know, it’s all in the words.

Congress is off for the Christmas holidays, but when lawmakers come back some will be laboring on a newly renamed committee.

It’s the Education and the Workforce Committee, previously known in the just-concluded Congress as the Education and Labor Committee.

While I am aware that the word “workforce” is a term employers favor, I don’t find the term particularly political one way or another. But the word “labor” will never do for the Republicans. Labor Unions. Labor Movement. American Federation of Labor.

Can’t confuse the issue, after all.

In The Best Interest of the Country

Newt is back.

Newt Gingrich’s daughter says her father may be doing more than just flirting with a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.

"He's very serious," said Jackie Gingrich Cushman, an author and syndicated columnist, in an interview with Human Events posted Monday. "Much more serious than he ever has been.

And I can tell that because we actually sat down the two of us, for two hours recently — and I don't think that's happened since I had children."

And why the comeback? Because the country, needs him of course.

"All of my life, he's always done what he has thought was best for our country," she said. "And I think that he'll take all of that into consideration. So we'll see in February or March."

What a guy. Couldn’t spend more than two hours straight talking to his daughter in 30 years. Guess it’s because he’s too busy reading the likes of Human Events and worrying about the country.

For some reason, I can’t get the picture of a debate between Newt Gingrich and Haley Barbour out of my mind. 2012 is shaping up nicely.

Saying Stupid Things

The problem with saying stupid things is that it puts you on the front page of the newspapers. And the problem with being on the front page of the newspapers for saying stupid things, is that it prompts reporters to find more ways to put you on that front page for things you would rather keep on the back page. Again and again.

POLITICO.com on Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour:

The Mississippi state plane, a zippy Cessna Citation with a capacity of 12, is a favorite of corporate executives and the wealthy, and its principal passenger, Gov. Haley Barbour, might easily be mistaken for one of them when he arrives with a small entourage at airports in Washington, Las Vegas or New York, a car and driver waiting there at their disposal.

Barbour has traveled extensively on the jet, brushing off suggestions from Mississippi Democrats that he give it up in favor of a more modest propeller plane for his travel. The trips, according to a POLITICO review of the Cessna’s flight manifest since 2007, have mixed state business with both pleasure and national politics.

Of course, his defenders in the state of Mississippi will continue to say that the type of visibility associated with travel of this nature is good for the state and good for business. His critics will not stop branding him a “lobbyist.”

Critics say the flights suggest that Barbour has continued to live the lifestyle of a highflying lobbyist as he's slashed his state's budget for government services across the board since taking office in 2004.
"All he has to do is meet with one congressman or senator for five minutes, and he can say that he's on official business," complained Mississippi Democratic state Rep. Johnny Stringer, who introduced the bill in the state Legislature to sell the Cessna.

Expect a lot more on the comings and goings of Gov. Barbour as 2012 Presidential election speculation ramps up.

And like I said before, he will never be President.

The Late, Great Celia Cruz

My way of wishing everyone a very happy, holiday week!

¡Azúcar!

Childhood Asthma In Puerto Rico

An interesting story from The Washington Post about the high incidence of asthma in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. Caribbean territory where children are nearly 300 percent more likely to have the respiratory ailment than white non-Hispanic children in the continental United States. And this year, Puerto Rico has seen a jump in asthma cases, which health officials suspect might be linked to the heavy rains that have unleashed millions of spores.

The island, with a population of 4 million, already has 2.5 times the death rate stemming from asthma as the mainland, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Puerto Ricans in the U.S. also have been hit hard by asthma, with an asthma attack rate 2.5 times higher than for whites. 

I had no idea this was such a huge problem on the island.

Why Haley Barbour Will Never Be President

In reality I have no idea whether or not Haley Barbour is a racist, or whether he is a "revisionist," as in someone who engages in re-writing history for hobby or political gain. What I do think, is that Gov. Barbour is not particularly interested in engaging with, or understanding people who are different than he is. He has little or no desire to genuinely hear the story of "the other," and probably little capability to take the words of folks who have lived a different history than his own, as any form of truth. In today's post-modern word, that means you don't get elected President.

By all accounts, Barbour is an accomplished sort. He currently serves as Governor of Mississippi, and was a high-profile figure during his tenure as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. A real fixture on CNN. He is also presently the Chairman of the Republican Governors Association. And conventional wisdom has it that he is running for the Republican nomination for President in 2012.

Much has been made of Andrew Ferguson's lengthy profile of Gov. Barbour just published in The Weekly Standard. Take a read -- as is true in most cases, it is worth reading the source document before taking in all the commentary. The most attention has gone to his comments about the Citizens' Council of America, founded in 1954 as the White Citizens' Council. A white supremacist group known for its opposition to racial integration, in its heyday if had approximately 60,000 members, mostly in the South.

Gov. Barbour seems to think that the business community in his hometown of Yazoo City, Mississippi was against the KKK because it was bad for the bottom line. From the Weekly Standard:

Because the business community wouldn’t stand for it,” he said. “You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.”

I will leave it to Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, and Matt Yglesias (among many, many others) to show us that the Citizens' Council was -- surprise, surprise -- NOT the benevolent association Barbour makes it out to be. Truly remarkable words, on the part of the good governor. It really makes me believe he has no ability to internalize the narrative of someone who has lived a different existence than he has. No desire to challenge his own assumptions based on what someone else says is his or her own truth. No interest in simply listening to someone else, and perhaps saying, "Really? Tell me more..." Or "let's talk, so I can understand how you remember it."

While so much has been made of Barbour's comments about the Citizens' Council, far more shocking are his comments about growing up in the civil rights era. The picture painted here of sheer disinterest, is remarkable.

In interviews Barbour doesn’t have much to say about growing up in the midst of the civil rights revolution. “I just don’t remember it as being that bad,” he said. “I remember Martin Luther King came to town, in ’62. He spoke out at the old fairground and it was full of people, black and white.”

Did you go? I asked.

“Sure, I was there with some of my friends.”

I asked him why he went out.

“We wanted to hear him speak.” 

I asked what King had said that day.

“I don’t really remember. The truth is, we couldn’t hear very well. We were sort of out there on the periphery. We just sat on our cars, watching the girls, talking, doing what boys do. We paid more attention to the girls than to King.”

If these words truly represent Gov. Barbour's sentiments, he has clearly either never spoken a word to a middle-aged, African-American man from Mississippi, or he has and then completely dismissed the words as bearing no personal or historic truth. He does not even seem to have the political savvy to know he should have re-told the story -- yes, lied to make himself look more attractive. Or better yet, told the truth, but perhaps with some lament about how he felt about the experience at the time.

That said, it did not take long for Barbour to release a statement of retraction related to his published words. It is short and sweet, and odd in its inability to show he has any understanding for the complexities of the issues raised by the history of his Mississippi hometown. Segregation, indefensible? African-Americans, persecuted? A difficult era? Somehow I can't shower praise on the simplicity of them-there-fighting-words:

"When asked why my hometown in Mississippi did not suffer the same racial violence when I was a young man that accompanied other towns' integration efforts, I accurately said the community leadership wouldn't tolerate it and helped prevent violence there. My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the 'Citizens Council,' is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country, and especially African Americans who were persecuted in that time.

Clearly, Gov. Barbour can't look back at the young man he was and position himself as a more introspective citizen of the present-day. He is either not interested in anyone other than himself and doesn't know he should be, or simply can't pretend to care. That is why he will never be President

Sam Seder is Back!

For those of you who remember Sam Seder, he is back doing a daily, internet radio show aptly named The Majority Report after the fine show he hosted on the late, great Air America.  He's doing lots of super interviews with folks from around the blogosphere and beyond.  Podcasts, too!

He will also be substitute hosting for Keith Olbermann this holiday week on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Welcome back to the airwaves!

The Inevitability of Gay Marriage

Something is up with this White House and gay marriage.

First, President Obama goes on a huge segue about gay marriage during his press conference this week. He responded as part of a question on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” that secondarily addressed the issue of gay marriage. He really went at it, when he could have glossed over the second part of the question.

He personalized the question tremendously in stating that his views on the issue were evolving, almost assuming the average person could relate to him because they were presently engaging in the same type of thinking.

With respect to the issue of whether gays and lesbians should be able to get married, I've spoken about this recently. As I've said, my feelings about this are constantly evolving. I struggle with this. I have friends, I have people who work for me, who are in powerful, strong, long-lasting gay or lesbian unions. And they are extraordinary people, and this is something that means a lot to them and they care deeply about.

At this point, what I've said is, is that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have. And I think -- and I think that's the right thing to do. But I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough, and I think is something that we're going to continue to debate and I personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward.

And then today, Vice President Joe Biden goes on Good Morning and says “gay marriage in the U.S is inevitable.” You can watch here.

From the L.A. Times:

"I think the country is evolving, and I think there is an inevitability for a national consensus on gay marriage," Biden said. Same-sex marriages are legal in five states and the District of Columbia.

So, what’s up? More than cozying up to the base?

The Best of 2010: The Keith Olbermann Edition

Enjoy Keith Olbermann's "Special Investigation" on Obama-Not-the-First-Muslim-President!  A best of the year!

Back on Top

If CNN politcal opinion polls are your cup of tea, then President Obama is back on top.

According to the poll, 56% of Americans approve of President Obama's job performance during the lame duck session.  Congressional Republicans only get an approval rating of 42% during the same time period. 

Off and running towards 2012.

End-of-the-Year Presser

Well, I enjoyed watching President Obama's press conference this week. Fairly obvious from the get-go that this show was going to be better than his last presser. A few tactical successes, if you ask me.

He obviously wanted to get a message to his base on the DREAM Act. His long, long response to Juan Carlos López from CNN Español was testimony to that. And he could not stop reminding us of exactly where he disagreed with the Republicans on the tax-cut extension compromise. But, I suspect his handlers weren't too happy with the gay marriage segue….

He clearly wanted to make the point that bi-partisanship equaled "progress for the American people" these last few weeks, while at the same time taking credit for various wins in the Democratic column -- the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the new START treaty, and the food safety bill. And I think it worked. Center-left commentary was all about how this bi-partisan stuff is working for the President. He's the new "comeback kid." Probably staying up late at night shooting the breeze with President Clinton.  Maybe even happy that the country will now see him fighting with Speaker of the House-to-be John Boehner, instead of butting heads with one of this own, Nancy Pelosi.  And these were the same prognosticating folks who were going on and on in November about how his moving to the center was what caused Democrats to lose control of the House of Representatives. 

Go figure.

Lt. Dan Choi Gets His Ring Back!

One of the most touching moments of the week. Lt. Dan Choi gets his West Point ring back from Senate Majority leader Harry Reid. And, he re-enlists, too!

Good for him, good for the military and good for the country!

In Thier Own Words: The DADT Edition

The President signed the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" yesterday. Finally, ALL members of the United States military are on their way to being able to serve their country with complete honesty and integrity, which is of course the only way the world's finest military should operate. You can read the full statement from the White House here.

So many folks, individuals and organizations worked so hard for so many years to make this happen. So today, a tribute to them. In their own words.

1) First, perhaps a tribute in OUR words. None of this could have happened without the troops. Consider sending a thank you to the active service members of the military and veterans who were on the right side of history here -- gay and straight alike. You can send your messages here.

2) And speaking of the troops. Too many brave men and women, in maintaining the military Code of Honor demanding truthfulness and honesty sacrificed their careers to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Here's to Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and Iraq veteran fluent in Arabic, who was notified that the Army had begun discharge proceedings against him after he announced that he was gay on The Rachel Maddow Show. Lt. Choi served for a decade under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. He became the face of the despicable policy when he publicly gave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid his West Point ring to hold until repeal. This week, Sen. Reid returned the ring, and Lt. Choi announced his plans to re-enlist. In Lt. Choi's own words:

No revolution towards justice ever went backwards. To all the supporters of equality and Don't Ask Don't Tell's death, I am so grateful. The road has not been easy. We have learned many important lessons about social justice, movements, supporting each other, and speaking out against discrimination.

The mission is not finished; it has only just begun. The most critical mission is supporting and encouraging closeted soldiers to finally access their full integrity, dignity, and humanity. This mission is in keeping with the first lessons learned at West Point or basic training. As the legislation signals a new chapter in our journey, we can be sure that our work has only begun. I call on all soldiers to gain the courage to come out. First come out to yourselves, then tell your trusted friends and family. Tell everyone who you trust and who deserves nothing less than truth. Stop hating yourselves as your country has signaled for so long. Furthermore, your coming out is not for you. It is for all those who come after. Military service is not about rank, pension or paycheck. Climbing the ladder is shameful without true purity of service and I applaud those who give up the superficial artifacts of career in favor of complete integrity and justice.

3) No thank you would be complete without a tribute to John Aravosis and his team at AMERICAblog.com. Not only years of blogging on this issue, but top-notch, behind-the-scenes maneuvering from the best, inside the Beltway team. In John's own words, writing only as a veteran of political warfare can:

The signing ceremony for the DADT legislation took place this morning at the Interior Department. They had invited a lot of people, so the only building with a sufficiently big room was over at interior. Joe attended (I was invited, but had already left for Chicago for Christmas). Joe did some photo coverage here. Here is the President's speech at the event.

A lot of the media is talking about how today DADT was repealed. It wasn't. Today we gave the President, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Secretary of Defense the ability to get rid of DADT if they so choose at some point in the future. So DADT won't be repealed until the President, along with DOD, decides to do just that. The legislation preserves that option, an option that wouldn't have existed legislatively once the Republicans take over the House. So this is a good thing. It's not, however, a repeal - yet.

4) No one, and I mean NO ONE put a human face on the blatant discriminatory nature of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" like Rachel Maddow, on her MSNBC television show. She interviewed brave men and women directly affected by the policy, letting them position their own personal stories in light of recent history. This week, she highlighted four members of military in an extraordinary piece. You can watch here.

And from her blog, with a reminder of just how much bad public policy can cost in real dollars:

The Senate has voted to end the military ban on openly gay troops, putting the final Congressional approval on an end to the disastrous Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy. Since Congress passed the compromise bill 17 years ago, DADT has cost the nation an estimated $1.3 billion dollars and ended the careers of 13,000 service members who wanted to help their nation.

5) And then there is Service Members United, a non-partisan and non-profit organization whose primary goal is to engage in education and advocacy on issues affecting gay and lesbian troops and veterans “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” included. In the words of the agency's Executive Director, Alexander Nicholson:

“This vote represents an historic step forward for this country, and it will very likely be a life-changing moment for gay and lesbian troops,” said Alexander Nicholson, Executive Director of Servicemembers United and a former multi-lingual Army interrogator who was discharged under DADT. “While we still have a long road ahead, including the certification process and a yet-to-be-determined implementation period, those who defend our freedom while living in fear for their careers will finally breathe a sigh of relief tonight, and those who have fallen victim to this policy in years past will finally begin to see true closure and redemption on the horizon.”

6) Service Members Legal Defense Network has since 1993 provided free, confidential legal services to all those impacted by DADT and related discrimination. They have been working on this issue all throughout the 17 years the policy has been implemented.

In signing this bill today, President Obama delivered on a defining civil rights measure for our country and for gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members who have been silenced for far too long. Clearly, this is President Obama’s Lyndon Johnson moment in history. A measure of dignity has been restored to thousands of service members on active duty, and to over a million gay veterans who served in silence. This historic moment is about those service members and their service,” said Aubrey Sarvis, Army veteran and executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

7) This repeal never would have happened without the hard work of many on Capitol Hill. From Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, to Rep. Patrick Murphy, himself a veteran. (BTW, we will miss you Patrick). On the Senate side, Majority Leader Harry Reid's timing was impeccable, although at times his commitment to seeing this through during the lame duck session was questioned. Here's to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn who had the foresight to introduce a stand alone bill to the Senate:

“America became an even greater and stronger country today as President Obama signed the repeal of the discriminatory policy that prohibited gay and lesbian patriots from openly serving in the military. This victory for justice and equality has many authors, but I would particularly like to applaud the leadership of President Obama, Senator Reid, Chairman Levin and Senator Collins, as well as our House counterparts, Speaker Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Patrick Murphy. We are deeply indebted to the heroes of our armed services who sacrifice every day so we can enjoy liberty. And American liberty became more complete today when President Obama signed this legislation into law.”

Nothing else to say except, "thank you." Gracias.

Census Day Arrives

U.S. Census numbers are out today, numbers that will be used to reapportion seats in Congress. It is no surprise that the new political map will give more seats to the South and West, and take away from the Northeast and Midwest.

From the NYT:

On the surface, the Republicans would seem to have the advantage. Most of the states winning seats trend Republican, and most of those losing them tend to elect Democrats. What is more, Republicans will be in a strong position to steer the process, with Republican governors outnumbering Democrats 29 to 20, with one independent, come January. Republicans also gained control of at least 18 legislative chambers in the midterms last month.

“Republicans are in the best position since modern redistricting began,” said Tim Storey, an expert on redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But population gains in the South and West were driven overwhelmingly by minorities, particularly Hispanics, and the new districts, according to the rules of redistricting, will need to be drawn in places where they live, opening potential advantages for Democrats, who tend to be more popular among minorities.

And an extensive analysis from Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight:

The partisan patterns are by no means uniform. Democrats will benefit from growing Hispanic populations in some places, and some Republican-leaning rural districts in Farm Belt states like Iowa are losing population. Further, in the urban areas that are losing population, like Cleveland and New Orleans, the voters are so overwhelmingly Democratic that modest changes in boundaries will not harm Democrats much. But the trends should benefit Republicans over all, almost no matter how the new boundary lines are drawn

I am sure there will be lots more commentary in the coming weeks, and lots of fun ways to interact with the data!

Lindsey Graham, Unplugged

Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC. is tired.  He had a week-from-hell.  He had to work.  He had to think.

My heart bleeds for him.

USDA Loans

In light of the landmark settlement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and African-American farmers signed last week by President Obama, National Public Radio’s Morning Edition yesterday did a startling piece highlighting the plight of Hispanic farmers with similar discriminatory complaints. In both cases, minority farmers filed complaints to the USDA Civil Rights Office due to inaction on applications made to the Farm Service Agencies for USDA loans. The difference is that when the USDA Civil Rights Office refused to investigate the discrimination complaints, federal judges in the black farmers’ cases conferred class status on their lawsuits. Not so in the case of the Hispanic farmers.

NPR’s Wade Goodwyn did the reporting, in part interviewing Noe Obregon, a Texas farmer. The emphasis is mine.

WADE GOODWYN: Noe Obregon is a third generation Texas farmer. His grandfather, a sharecropper, eventually earned enough to buy his own property. By the time Obregon graduated from high school, he'd already been farming with his father for years, plowing the land. Obregon went to the USDA's Farm Service Agency in 1980 because one of the agency's missions was to help young farmers get started.

Mr. NOE OBREGON (Farmer): I had asked for an application, and they said that I was too young to farm. Even though my background had always been in the farm industry, they denied me, saying that I was too young.

GOODWYN: Obregon says if the Farm Service Agency didn't turn him down outright, they would delay his loan for months. White farmers in Frio County got their USDA loans in January, Hispanic farmers in July.

Mr. OBREGON: By the time we would get our loans, it was super late. We couldn't put in our crops. Our rain cycles was gone. It was controlled by Anglo farmers, and they wanted Hispanic workers to work for them.

According to Stephen Hill, an attorney representing the Hispanic farmers, the federal government is offering Hispanic and women farmers about a billion dollars less than black and Indian famers, even though the pool of potential claimants is as much as 12 times larger. And he says that since the government’s proposal violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, his clients are considering a lawsuit on those grounds.

"It was controlled by Anglo farmers, and they wanted Hispanic workers to work from them."  Chilling words, but no doubt true.  You can listen here, or read the rest of the transcript here.

Census Day

Tomorrow is day the Census Bureau releases the results of the 2010 Census.  I love Census Day.  And to think -- it only happens once every ten years.

In reality, the results provide years of entertainment for geeks like me obsessed with accurate reflections of population shifts in the country.  Look for lots of media outlets linking to cool websites where you can type in zip codes and come up with colorful maps telling you everything you ever wanted to know about who lives where.

Should provide ten years worth of entertainment!

Ramifications for Generations

Now What???

This morning, The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act failed to receive the necessary 60 votes to invoke cloture. With a vote of 55-41, debate was censured. No super majority = no debate, in these days of unending Republican obstructionism.  

I spent much of the morning watching the television commentary on Univision, headlined by anchor Jorge Ramos. A few comments:  

We desperately need filibuster reform. This country was not designed to be held to the will of a super-majority. And it is decidedly anti-intellectual. The failure of a cloture vote means simply, that debate does not happen. It means ideas are never discussed in the public forum known as “The Floor of the Senate.” It means we do not get to turn on C-SPAN and hear our elected representatives do the work of the American people. We are talking about cynical moves that in part, work to keep everyone uniformed -- the decision-makers included.  

The Dreamers are amazing! Muchas gracias, Jorge Ramos for sharing the anchor desk with so many of them this morning! They are angry, but they will not stop fighting They will continue to employ the best, grassroots political strategies to make sure their voices remain heard – from rallies, to hunger strikes, to prayer vigils to charity drives. And they know full well who needs to be targeted in the next election, Democrats and Republicans alike. If these young folks have their way, heaven help the five Democrats who did not hold rank this morning. There could be particular ramifications for Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Bob Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, all from states with fast-growing Latino populations. And the Dreamers made it clear this morning that they plan on making life hell for the two Republican Senators from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn and for Mark Kirk, the newly elected Republican Senator from Illinois. Both states have large, voting Latino constituencies.  

There is an underlying sense that the Democrats and the White House did not push hard enough to make this happen. I am sure some of this is about the fact that the Democrats splintered on this one. I think it might be more about the fact that no one is willing to stand up for comprehensive, immigration reform. And let’s face it. The expectation is that the Democrats should be on the forefront of this one. While it’s pretty clear Latinos will not crossover to vote Republican in 2012, Democrats might have to work harder than they think to get out the vote, next time around.  

A nice round-up from the Washington Post right after the vote, emphasizing compromise and miscalculation:

Deporting almost 800,000 illegal immigrants might antagonize some Democrats and Latino voters, Obama's skeptical supporters said the president told them, but stepped-up enforcement was the only way to buy credibility with Republicans and generate bipartisan support for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. 

On Saturday that strategy was in ruins after Senate Democrats could muster only 55 votes in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a measure that would have created a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children. Under Senate rules, Democrats needed 60 votes to overcome Republican opposition to the bill.  

And more, from Illinois Democrat, Rep. Luis Guiterrez:

"It is a strategy which has borne no fruits whatsoever," Gutierrez said. "This administration has unilaterally led the march on enforcement, yet the other side has not given one modicum of compromise."

"If you really want to bring Republicans to the table," he added, "so long as they are getting everything they want, every piece of enforcement, why, why would they come to the table?"  

So no, increased enforcement did not force the Republicans to compromise on The Dream Act. And the outlook on compromise leading to real, immigration reform is no better.

On the political front, the ramifications of this failure will be seen for generations to come. Latinos will not forget the message they were sent today. We don’t care about your children.

But, in the words of Sen. Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois:

“Thousands of children in American who live in the shadows and dream of greatness,” he said. “they are children who have been raised in this country. They stand in the classrooms and pledge allegiance to our flag. They sing our star-spangled banner as our national anthem. They believe in their heart of hearts this is home. This is the only country they have every known.”

La lucha continua. The good fight goes on.

The Day That Will Be: The Saturday Edition

A big, day today.

First, the Senate will take up the cloture vote on the DREAM Act. What message will the Republicans send to Latinos – our fastest growing voter demographic? If the message is “we don’t give a damn about your children," they can forget about ever making ANY political inroads into the Spanish-speaking, and Latino immigrant communities of our country. You can watch live coverage in Spanish on both Telemundo and Univision.

Then on to the stand-alone bill that would repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Kudos to Service Members United for three straight days of storming Capitol Hill with a highly organized lobbying blitz. What a great organization. I am in awe of their work.

I will be switching between Univision and CSPAN2.

Only A Matter of Time

The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal now has 61 Senate pledges. Filibuster-proof, unbelievably enough.

We have always known it was only a matter of time until the reality of the repeal -- either via legislation, or through the courts.  But now it really is only a matter of time – or perhaps not enough of it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must push this legislation through the lame-duck session or it’s dead. Hard to believe it would be revived in the future Republican-led House, and difficult to imagine a filibuster-proof Senate majority in 2011.

There's no time like the present. Or don't put off for tomorrow, what you can do today. Or time is of the essence.

Or something like that.

Get Out of Jail Card

Standing up for what’s right.

From Michael Moore:

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.

“Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at the truth.” -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Famous Last Words

Note to Obama administration: A little class, please.

From The HuffingtonPost:

The Obama administration said Tuesday that the reported last words of veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, its point person on Afghanistan and Pakistan who passed away this week, were meant as humor.

Administration officials sought to clarify that, according to people who were present, Holbrooke's final words, "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan," were part of a jovial back-and-forth with the medical staff.

Somehow, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke never struck me as the joking kind. Not on things like this, and not on his deathbed.

Note to Obama administration:  Stop this war, please.

20 Days and Counting

Twenty more days to the end of the lame-duck session, even though the chance Congress will remain in session until January 3rd is zero.

START. The DREAM Act. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” What, if anything will get done?

Most interesting is today’s news that the House Democrats will introduce a stand-alone bill this week to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The language will be identical to the one Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins introduced last week. If they both pass, no need for reconciliation and on to the President’s desk. Just the way President Obama would like the repeal to happen.

From Greg Sargent over at The Plum Line:

To be sure, the Senate Dem leadership could still decide there isn't time to do DADT, what with the need to ratify New START and keep the government funded. And even if the Senate does vote on a stand-alone repeal bill, it's unclear whether it will pass. GOP moderates who say they back repeal refused to vote for it last time, suggesting they may do so again. On the other hand, now that the tax deal standoff has been resolved, those moderates may feel freer to vote Yes on DADT repeal.

This is good news. A sense of optimism on this one today.

The DREAM Deferred

Now What?

I can’t imagine things are looking too good for the Dream Act in the Senate this week. With time closing in on the lame-duck session, it is hard to see how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is going to get 60 votes to move the measure through likely procedural hell. Last week Reid abandoned all efforts to push forward on the Senate version of the bill, which was different from the one passed in the House of Representatives. He is still saying he will introduce a Senate bill identical to the House version, which if passed would not have to be reconciled by the two bodies and would got straight to the President for signature.

If this does not get done in the coming week, we can assume the Dream will remain dead for a long, long time. The House of Representatives would have to pass the bill again in the upcoming session, which seems unlikely given the make-up of the newly elected body. Can’t quite imagine Speaker-of- the-House-to-be John Boehner pushing on this one.

So, what messages will we be sending those young folks who would be the direct beneficiaries under the terms of the legislation? First, a lesson in how-a-bill-becomes-a-law:

-- Yes, it’s true. All good legislation goes to the Senate to die.

-- Filibuster reform, please. Now.

Unfortunately, what we will really be telling the entire world is that America is ready, willing and able to systemically ensure an entire class of people living within its borders is cut off from all possibility of ever contributing positively to society – including the honor of serving the only country many of these young people have ever called home.

Let’s face it folks. The children of undocumented immigrants who came to this country as youngsters are not going anywhere. They have NO WHERE to go. And they are not going underground. THEY CAN’T. If they play by the rules they can either remain here as productive members of society, or they will remain here as a disenfranchised group, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. And angry. Visibly angry. Possibly very visibly angry. Social unrest angry.

Does America really want to go the way of other countries, systemically unable to integrate entire groups of newcomers into their societies? A costly proposition.

Cease and Desist

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" this morning" NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (again) ended speculation that he is running for President in 2012.

From the NYT:

He said he was urging his supporters to “cease and desist” fomenting speculation and buzz about his interest in a candidacy, adding “but most of this is just because the press wants to have something to write about.”

“I want to go out having a reputation as a very good, maybe the greatest mayor ever,” he said.

Despite the fact that I can't stand the guy, for many years I found him interesting enough to follow his comings and going in my hometown. Someone still needs to explain to me how in the world he supported Meg Whitman for governor here in California this year.

Kids In the Know

Want to know what makes for a good teacher? Ask the kids.

Teachers whose students described them as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their charges learn from their mistakes are often the same teachers whose students learn the most in the course of a year, as measured by gains on standardized test scores, according to a progress report on the research.

Financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the two-year project involves scores of social scientists and some 3,000 teachers and their students in Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Denver; Hillsborough County, Fla., which includes Tampa; Memphis; New York; and Pittsburgh.

The research is part of the $335 million Gates Foundation effort to overhaul the personnel systems in those districts. 

And there's more:

Teachers whose students agreed with the statement, “We spend a lot of time in this class practicing for the state test,” tended to make smaller gains on those exams than other teachers.

“Teaching to the test makes your students do worse on the tests,” Ms. Phillips said. “It turns out all that ‘drill and kill’ isn’t helpful.”

Makes perfect sense to me.

The DREAM Act

Playing dominoes in Little Havana

The DREAM Act passed the House of Representatives yesterday, with eight Republicans voting yes. An interesting lot of Republicans, those who voted in the affirmative. The three Cuban-born House members from South Florida, Charles Djou from Hawaii, and Anh “Joseph” Cao from Louisiana. Djou’s parents immigrated from China and Thailand, and Cao came to the United States from Saigon as a young boy. And did I forget to mention that both Djou and Cao lost their election bids to their Democratic opponents last month? Imagine. Republican seats that turned Democratic in 2010…. I digress.

The DREAM Act is short for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. If passed, The DREAM Act would give undocumented children who were brought here at a young age a path to permanent legal resident status, if certain requirements are met. Along the way, they would be given the opportunity to work legally. As requirements they would need to show they came here before their 16th birthday, lived here for at least five consecutive years prior to the bill’s enactment, graduated from high school, and completed at least two years of college or military service.

It’s a no brainer that Cuban-American House members would support passage. After all, we have lived the DREAM Act. Thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, Cubans who make it to the United States are put on an automatic path to citizenship. I was born here shortly after my parents arrived from Havana and no adult members of my family ever had to worry that they could not work here legally. Or go to college. Or serve their country by joining the military. No worries about being undocumented.

Miriam Zoila Pérez writes articulately about this in ColorLines:

U.S. immigration policy toward Cubans has been an extremely good thing for the Cuban-American community and should be a model for immigration policy toward other immigrant groups as well. Statistics show what a boon this special status has been for Cubans in the U.S. The fourth largest Latino group in the U.S., we outperform all other Latino groups in basically every category linked to economic status, according to data from the Pew Hispanic Center. Cubans are almost twice as likely as other Latinos to have a college degree (25 percent as opposed to 12.9 percent). Cubans have a median income that is $5,000 higher than other Latino groups. Only 13.2 percent of Cubans are living in poverty, as opposed to 20.7 percent of other Latinos. The list goes on. Based on 2008 census data, in homeownership, employment rates, number of insured, across the board Cuban Americans do better than all other Latino groups.

She continues:

Whatever drove the policy in Washington, what’s significant is its outcome. Whereas immigrants today are faced with countless roadblocks to success even when they are documented, Cubans have been given every type of assistance necessary to guarantee our success. And it’s worked.

Congress now has an opportunity to grant these same rights to another immigrant group—the DREAMers, young people raised in the U.S. without documents. If the DREAM Act is passed, these young people will have to jump through hoops that the Cubans never did, but they’ll also reap the benefits of joining the ranks of documented immigrants. Even conservatives should agree that having an immigrant population in the U.S. that is out of poverty and into the workforce is a key driver toward economic success for the entire nation.

I have high hopes that these “DREAMers” will be given every opportunity I was afforded as the daughter of Cuban immigrants in the 1960’s. It's good for all of us. It's good for the country.  And it shows the rest of the world what we are really all about.

Now on to the Senate.

The Presser

Here is the full text of President Obama's press conference yesterday.  Take note of the first question, and the last. The emphasis is mine.

It started with:

Ben Feller.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President. You've been telling the American people all along that you oppose extending the tax cuts for the wealthier Americans. You said that again today. But what you never said was that you oppose the tax cuts, but you'd be willing to go ahead and extend them for a couple years if the politics of the moment demand it.  So what I'm wondering is when you take a stand like you had, why should the American people believe that you're going to stick with it? Why should the American people believe that you're not going to flip flop?

And it ended with:

Jonathan Weisman, last question.

Q: Some on the left have questioned -- have looked at this deal and questioned what your core values are, what specifically you will go to the mat on. I'm wondering if you can reassure them with some specific things in saying, all right, this is where I don't budge. And along those lines, what's going to be different in 2012, when all these tax cuts again are up for expiration? 

 Someone has a messaging problem, no?

The Last Sane Man Standing

I guess President Obama’s White House advisers believe he is the last reasonable man left standing in Washington, DC. Or perhaps, that is what they would like us to believe.

From the Washington Post:

Although his liberal supporters are furious about the decision, President Obama's willingness to extend all of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts is part of what White House officials say is a deliberate strategy: to demonstrate his ability to compromise with Republicans and portray the president as the last reasonable man in a sharply partisan Washington.

The move is based on a political calculation, drawn from his party's midterm defeat, that places a premium on winning back independent voters.

All us political junkies spend a lot of time wondering exactly what it is that Americans like and respect in a President. I have come to believe two qualities – or even the perception that a President has one of these qualities is of utmost importance. We like our Presidents to be hard working. After all, part of being a good American is working hard. And we respect those who believe in something and stick to it – as long as that “something” is of basic understanding to us.  So good communication skills are important as well.  The President must always be showing us how hard he is working, or making sure that in very basic terms we understand how his values play out in day-to-day terms.  Oh, and a little charm and some good looks don't hurt, either.

I'm not sure we ever knew exactly what Bill Clinton stood for, but the perception that he was a hard worker worked wonders for him, especially during the impeachment trial. It still works well for him, and I believe rubs off on Hillary. His good communication skills translated into an uncanny ability to listen to the common man.  Although I don't think anyone could make the case that Ronald Reagan was a brain surgeon, part of his legacy is that he had simple beliefs we all could understand, and that those beliefs always first and foremost guided his decision-making process.  And let's not forget that he was "The Great Communicator."

I believe the American public understood quite well the deep, deep distress this country was in when we elected President Obama two years ago. And while perhaps naïve, I also believe the normally impatient American electorate understood it would take some time to get us out of this mess. Years and years, perhaps. And yes, I think we had the patience. We wanted someone to work hard, and do something they believed in. Anything – as long as we could understand it within the context of our own lives. We wanted an administration that would stick to its guns. And we were willing to listen hard and try to understand the ifs-ands-or-buts.  Hard Work + Sold Beliefs + Good Communication ala the Fireside Chats = A VERY, VERY Successful Obama Presidency. Despite charm, good looks and personality thrown in for good measure, the Obama White House has not been be able to tweak the equation.

Even the Republicans know most folks who abandoned the Democrats in the voting booth last November did not cast a vote for them, as much as an anti-Obama ballot. I personally believe the anti-Obama ballot was fundamentally, a vote against someone who didn’t seem to be able to stand up, and stick to something he believed in.

So much for trying to win back the independent voter. It ain’t gonna fly.